an interview with ed alworth

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An Interview withED ALWORTH

An Oral History conducted and edited byRobert D. McCracken

Nye County Town History ProjectNye County, Nevada

Tonopah1990


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COPYRIGHT 1991Nye County Mown History Project

Nye County CommissionersTonopah, Nevada

89049


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Ed Alworth1990


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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE Ed's mother (from Minnesota) and father (from Nebraska) met in Nevada; growing up in theFallon area; work in the aircraft industry in California; ranching and dairying in Fallon; moving toGabbs in the early 1950s; service in the army during World War II and knowledge of aircraft.

CHAPTER TWO Service in World War II; work in Gabbs for Basic Magnesium plant maintenance and work onthe equipment used in the industry; description of mining and =wing ore; the production of brucite and uses for the material; some information on the history of the brucite and magnesiteoperations in the Gabbs area.

CHAPTER THREE FUrther description of the production of brucite and magnesite; the international communityand its effects on magnesite production; promotion to maintenance superintendent; a newfloatation plant; the purchase of Basic Magnesium by Engineering; the labor force at Gabbs; theeconomics of magnesite production; thermal ground water in Gabbs.

CHAPTER FOUR The new Gabbs sewage plant; the geology of the Gabbs area; Pat Willard and Norman Hanson;the brucite operation during World War II; other Gabbs area mines; remarks on the town of Gabbs; service as a city councilman; a change in community spirit; the Gabbs golf course andcommunity organizations.

CHAPTER FIVE Gabbs area recreation; mining tungsten, gold, antimony and mercury in the Gabbs area; Ione inthe 1950s; contrasting Gabbs when it was prospering and at present, when lousiness is slower.

Index


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PREFACE

The Nye County Town History Project (NCTHP) engages in interviewing people who canprovide firsthand descriptions of the individuals, events, and places that give history itssubstance. The products of this research are the tapes of the interviews and their

transcriptions.In themselves, oral history interviews are not history. However, they often contain

valuable primary source material, as useful in the process of historiography as the writtensources to which historians have customarily turned. Verifying the accuracy of all of thestatements made in the course of an interview would require more time and money than theNCTHP's operating budget permits. The program can vouch that the statements were made,but it cannot attest that they are free of error. Accordingly, oral histories should be read withthe same prudence that the reader exercises when consulting government records, newspaperaccounts, diaries, and other sources of historical information.

It is the policy of the NCTHP to produce transcripts that are as close to verbatim aspossible, but some alteration of the text is generally both unavoidable and desirable. Whenhuman speech is captured in print the result can be a morass of tangled syntax, false starts, andincomplete sentences, sometimes verging on incoherency. The type font contains no symbolsfor the physical gestures and the diverse vocal modulations that are integral parts of communication through speech. Experience shows that totally verbatim transcripts are oftenlargely unreadable and therefore a waste of the resources expended in their production. Whilekeeping alterations to a minimum the NCTHP will, in preparing a text:

a. generally delete false starts, redundancies and the uhs, ahs and other noises with whichspeech is often sprinkled;b. occasionally compress language that would be confusing to the reader in unalteredform;c. rarely shift a portion of a transcript to place it in its proper context;d. enclose in [brackets] explanatory information or wards that were not uttered but havebeen added to render the text intelligible; ande. make every effort to correctly spell the names of all individuals and places, recognizingthat an occasional word may be misspelled because no authoritative source on its correctspelling was found.


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As project director, I would like to express my deep appreciation to those whoparticipated in the Nye County TOwn History Project (NCTHP). It was an honor and a privilege tohave the opportunity to obtain oral histories from so many wonderful individuals. I was

welcomed into many homes--in many cases as a stranger--and was allowed to share in therecollection of local history. In a number of cases I had the opportunity to interview Nye Countyresidents whom I have known and admired since I was a teenager; these experiences wereespecially gratifying. I thank the residents throughout Nye County and Nevada--too numerousto mention by name--who provided assistance, information, and photographs. They helpedmake the successful completion of this project possible.

Appreciation goes to Chairman Joe S. Garcia, Jr., Robert N. "Bobby" Revert, and PatriciaS. Mankins, the Nye County commissioners who initiated this project. Mr. Garcia and Mr.Revert, in particular, showed deep interest and unyielding support for the project from itsinception. Thanks also go to current commissioners Richard L. Carver and Barbara J. Raper, whohave since joined Mr. Revert on the board and who have continued the project withenthusiastic support. Stephen T. Bradhurst, Jr., planning consultant for Nye County, gaveunwavering support and advocacy of the project within Nye County and before the State of Nevada Nuclear Waste Project Office and the United States Department of Energy; bothentities provided funds for this project. Thanks are also extended to Mr. Bradhurst for hisadvice and input regarding the conduct of the research and for constantiy serving as a soundingboard when methodological problems were worked out. This project would never have becomea reality without the enthusiastic support of the Nye County commissioners and Mr. Bradhurst.

Jean Charney served as administrative assistant, editor, indexer, and typist throughoutthe project; her services have been indispensable. Louise Terrell provided considerableassistance in transcribing many of the oral histories; Barbara Douglass also transcribed anumber of interviews. Transcribing, typing, editing, and indexing were provided at various timesby Jodie Hanson, Alice Levine, Mike Green, Cynthia Tremblay, and Jean Stoess. Jared Charneycontributed essential word processing skills. Maire Hayes, Michelle Starika, Anita Coryell, JodieHanson, Michelle Welsh, Lindsay Schumacher, and Shena Salzmann shouldered the herculeantask of proofreading the oral histories. Gretchen Loeffler and Bambi McCracken assisted innumerous secretarial and clerical duties. Phillip Earl of the Nevada Historical Societycontributed valuable support and criticism throughout the project, and Tan King at the OralHistory Program of the University of Nevada at Reno served as a consulting oral historian. Muchdeserved thanks are extended to all these persons.

All material for the NCTHP was prepared with the support of the U.S. Department of

Energy, Grant No. DE-FG08-89NV10820. However, any opinions, findings, conclusions, orrecommendations expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect theviews of DOE.

--Robert D. McCrackenTonopah, Nevada

1990


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INTRODUCTION

Historians generally consider the year 1890 as the end of the American frontier. By then,most of the western United States had been settled, ranches and farms developed,

communities established, and roads and railroads constructed. The mining boomtowns, basedon the lure of overnight riches from newly developed lodes, were but a memory.

Although Nevada was granted statehood in 1864, examination of any map of the statefrom the late 1800s shows that while much of the state was mapped and its geographicalfeatures named, a vast region--stretching from Belmont south to the Las Vegas meadows,comprising most of Nye County-- remained largely unsettled and unmapped. In 1890 most of southcentral Nevada remained very much a frontier, and it continued to be for at least anothertwenty years.

The great mining booms at Tonopah (1900), Goldfield (1902), and Rhyolite (1904)represent the last major flowering of what might be called the Old West in the United States.Consequently, southcentral Nevada, notably Nye County, remains close to the Americanfrontier; closer, perhaps, than any other region of the American West. In a real sense, asignificant part of the frontier can still be found in southcentral Nevada. It exists in theattitudes, values, lifestyles, and memories of area residents. The frontier-like character of thearea also is visible in the relatively undisturbed quality of the natural environment, most of itessentially untouched by human hands.

A survey of written sources on southcentral Nevada's history reveals some materialfrom the boomtown period from 1900 to about 1915, but very little on the area after around1920. The volume of available sources varies from town to town: A fair amount of literature, forinstance, can be found covering Tonopah's first two decades of existence, and the town has hada newspaper continuously since its first year. In contrast, relatively little is known about theearly days of Gabbs, Round Mountain, Manhattan, Beatty, Amargosa Valley, and Pahrump.Gabbs's only newspaper was published intermittently between 1974 and 1976. RoundMountain's only newspaper, the Round Maintain Nugget, was published between 1906 and1910. Manhattan had newspaper coverage for most of the years between 1906 and 1922.Amargosa Valley has never had a newspaper; Beatty's independent paper folded in 1912.Pahrump's first newspaper did not appear until 1971. All six communities received only spottycoverage in the newspapers of other communities after their own papers folded, althoughBeatty was served by the Beatty Bulletin, which was published as a supplement to the GoldfieldNews between 1947 and 1956. Consequently, must information on the history of southcentralNevada after 1920 is stored in the memories of individuals who are still living.

Aware of Nye County's close ties to our nation's frontier past, and recognizing that fewwritten sources on local history are available, especially after about 1920, the Nye CountyCommissioners initiated the Nye County TOwn History Project (NCTHP). The NCTHP representsan effort to systematically collect and preserve information on the history of Nye County. Thecenterpiece of the NCTHP is a large set of interviews conducted with individuals who hadknowledge of local history. Each interview was recorded, transcribed, and then edited lightly topreserve the language and speech patterns of those interviewed. All oral history interviewshave been printed on acid-free paper and bound and archived in Nye County libraries, Special


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Collections in the James R. Dickinson Library at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and atother archival sites located throughout Nevada The interviews vary in length and detail, buttogether they form a never-before-available composite picture of each community's life anddevelopment. The collection of interviews for each community can be compared to a bouquet:Each flower in the bouquet is unique--some are large, others are small--yet each adds to the

total image. In sum, the interviews provide a composite view of community and county history,revealing the flow of life and events for a part of Nevada that has heretofore been largelyneglected by historians.

Collection of the oral histories has been accompanied by the assembling of a set of photographs depicting each community's history. These pictures have been obtained fromparticipants in the oral history interviews and other present and past Nye County residents. Inall, more than 1,000 photos have been collected and carefully identified. Complete sets of thephotographs have been archived along with the oral histories.

On the basis of the oral interviews as well as existing written sources, histories havebeen prepared for the major communities in Nye County. These histories also have beenarchived.

The town history project is one component of a Nye County program to determine thesocioeconomic impacts of a federal proposal to build and operate a nuclear waste repository insouthcentral Nye County. The repository, which would be located inside a mountain (YuccaMountain), would be the nation's first, and possibly only, permanent disposal site for high-levelradioactive waste. The Nye County Board of County Commissioners initiated the NCTHP in 1987in order to collect information on the origin, history, traditions, and quality of life of Nye Countycommunities that may be impacted by a repository. If the repository is constructed, it willremain a source of interest for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years to come, and futuregenerations will likely want to know more about the people who once resided near the site. Inthe event that government policy changes and a high-level nuclear waste repository is notconstructed in Nye County, material compiled by the NCTHP will remain for the use andenjoyment of all.

R.D.M


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This is Robert McCracken talking to Ed Alworth at his home in Gabbs, Nevada, April 17, 1990.

CHAPTER ONE

RM: Ed, why don't we begin by you telling me your name as it reads on your birth certificate.

EA: Frances Edward Alworth.

RM: And when and where were you born?

EA: I was born in Fallon, [Nevada], April 1, 1920.

RM: And what was your mother's full name?

EA: Elizabeth Schindler.

RM: And when and where was she born, do you recall?

EA: She was born in Minnesota, but I don't remember the town or the date.

RM: What sort of activity was her family involved in?

EA: Mostly all dairy and ranching. Her father was a native of Switzerland and he followed theHolstein cow business and [had] dairies.

RM: And then what was your father's full name?

EA: Louis Alworth.

RM: And where was he born?

EA: He was born in Hemingford, Nebraska.

RM: What kind of activity was he involved in?

EA: He was mostly in ranching.

RM: How did he meet your mother?

EA: He came with his dad into Fallon in the early days, and her folks had moved to Canada andthen into California. When the Homestead [Act] came to Fallon, the Schindlers went in andhomesteaded in the Sheckler district. My dad was working for a ranch there somewhere andmy wither was the housekeeper, and they met.


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RM: That would have probably been around 1915 or so?

EA: They got married after he came back from the war - about 1918, somewhere in there.

RM: And when did they open up homesteading at Fallon?

EA: I have an idea it's when they started building the Lahontan Dam. The railroad had themopen this land up for homesteads and that's when they came in, so it was probably 1908 or '10or so.

RM: Yes. And then you were born in Fallon. Were you raised there?

EA: Yes.

RM: Where did you live in Fallon when you were growing up?

EA: We lived at different ranches and in town.

RM: Your dad worked for various ranchers?

EA: Yes.

RM: How far did you go in school in Fallon?

EA: I graduated from high school.

RM: What year was that?

EA: 1940.

RM: Just in time to get in World War II? Were you in the service?

EA: Right.

RM: How old were you when you went in?

EA: I was 22. I left Fallon . . . I was working at the Summit King Mine out of Fallon and got in alittle cave-in. In order to retrain me they sent me to San Diego Aviation School and then Iworked for Consolidated Aircraft down there until Decanter of '42. Then I went in the service.

RM: Were you hurt in that cave-in?

EA: Just wrenched my knees.


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RM: Where is the Summit King Mine?

EA: That's a gold and silver mine about 30 miles east of Fallon.

RM: Is it still operative?

EA: No. It's been abandoned since a little while after World War II.

RM: Did you kind of drift into the mining business from high school?

EA: Well no, from high school I was in the aircraft business for quite a while. Then I got out of there and was working for contractors and then I went to work for the railroad. Then I wentinto ranching - I took over my granddad's ranch, and leased another ranch, and went into thedairy business.

RM: This was before you went into the service or after?

EA: No, this was after.

RM: What were you doing prior to caning to Gabbs?

EA: I was in the dairy business.

RM: You were in the dairy business in Fallon?

EA: Yes. And I worked for another big rancher. I was supervising a ranch for Frank Brannon andthen I decided to go back into construction the next year, so I left there. I figured I'd put thewinter in Gabbs, and I never left.

RM: That was in '51?

EA: Yes.

RM: What brought you to Gabbs?

EA: I just needed a job for the winter and figured it'd be a good place to winter. I had myaircraft mechanic's training and this company needed that type of maintenance work.

RM: How was the Gabbs operation in '51?

EA: It was a lot smaller. There were lots of empty houses and there was nothing in the west endof lower Gabbs at that time.


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EA: It was in the '50s.

RM: Do you remember when it shut down, about?

EA: In the early '60s.

RM: Were there a lot of nonworking at the Kaiser mine?

EA: No. Probably not over 20, 25 at the most.

RM: And the housing for them was out at the mine?

EA: Right. They had a bunkhouse set up, and a recreation deal and several houses for thesupervisors, and they lived right there. It was a nice little mine camp.

RM: Is there still ore there?

EA: There's still ore there but it'd be pretty hard to get out.

RM: Yes, fluorspar's really bad to mine now. Was it open pit or underground?

EA: Underground.

RM: So then you came to Gabbs. How did you hear about it?

EA: I just went down to the unemployment office and said, "I'm looking for a job for thewinter." And they said, they need people out at Gabbs."

RM: What did you think when you came into Gabbs in '51?

EA: Well, I'll tell you the funny thing about this. A couple years before that, my wife had abrother working in Hawthorne. We went over and picked him up and came back aroundthrough here [Gabbs] and drove through in about '48 or so and this was practically a ghosttown. We drove around and there were no trees, no nothing, and we kind of shook our heads.We never realized that in about 3 years we would be living there.

RM: That's funny.

EA: When we first came out here there were quite a few houses, but it wasn't too easy to getinto one of them. So we lived at the Sierra Magnesite camp for about 6 months - that's up,where the bulk plant is now.

RM: Where's the bulk plant?


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EA: They had a laboratory there and a mess hall and houses.

RM: Sierra Magnesite was a separate operation from Basic Magnesium, wasn't it?

EA: Right.

RM: What were they doing there?

EA: They had underground works - they had drifts and stopes and a crushing plant and loadingbins there. (They mined magnesite there.) Now that's all been mined; the whole mountain isgone. You can see in some of the faces where their stopes were. I went in to repair equipmentafter Basic took it over.

RM: And you came here as a mechanic because had had experience with aircraft?

EA: Well yes. Technically, you know, you follow instructions, read blueprints and all that. That'sone of the things they train you to do. So that helped. Then I started getting the breaks and I just went right on up.

RM: Did you get drafted or you were in the service?

EA: I got drafted.

RM: They took you from your mechanics job?

EA: Yes. what happened was that I left my draft board in Fallon and then when I went home forChristmas vacation . . . I wasn't supposed to go to the army with the job I had, you see. But theold gal at the draft board called up and said, "Come down here. Sit down," and automaticallydrafted me into the army.

RM: As a punishment for . . . ?

EA: She claimed that I hadn't been sending in a change of address. Well, I had been. But I wasgoing to go anyhow, so I didn't argue with them. [After] years of thinking about it, I think it wasa setup deal. My brother was already on the draft list to go. Anyhow, I went home and got my

induction notice from her. She never talked to the draft board or anything.

RM: It was her doing?

EA: Yes. So I went back to Consolidated in San Diego and I said,I've got to quit."They said, "You can't quit."I said, 'Well, I'm drafted into the army."


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They said, "No you ain't." So they stopped the draft deal. They said, "Now you transferyour draft board down to San Diego. The job you've got would take us too long to train anotherman."

But I didn't change it. Thirty days later I was on my way.

RM: You didn't change it?

EA: No. It was impossible for a civilian to get by in San Diego then. If you just worked and wenthome and this or that [it was OK], but if you went anywhere and you ran into the sailors andmarines they'd give you a bad time: "Hey buddy, when you trading it in on a uniform?" Andthen you figured on getting it anyhow. So that was one of the reasons I was going in anyhow.

RM: Yes. They were just giving you a bad time?

EA: They gave everybody a bad time. It's a wonder they had anybody who kept working in thedefense plants there.

RM: What was your job in San Diego?

EA: It was engines and air frames.

RM: Were you building them?

EA: Assembling them. Then the last 6 months I was with flight in-service. That's going with themon the first and second flights to make sure everything's working.

RM: So you knew a lot about the planes, didn't you?

EA: Oh, that's it. When I went to work there it was before the war, and we were working onwhat they called LB-30s. [What had happened was], France ordered 30 of the B-24s and theonly place they were being made was in San Diego. Well, France fell to the Germans and sothen they came out with a loan to Britain They called them "loan to Britain" - LB and therewere 30 of them.

RM: Oh, so that's how they got the name, but they were B-24s.

EA: Right. And they didn't look a lot different [than the later ones]. The nacelle around theengines were round on them; when they improved the models they got that kind of oval shapeand bigger engines and better armament and everything.

RM: How did you happen to get there before the war?


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EA: That was when the government sent me down to the aircraft school. That was automatic - if you didn't get a job down there, they had the finger on you and the army would train you. Soyou had two choices, either work in a civilian outfit or go to the army.

RM: So it was really the draft board that did it?

EA: Well, not the draft board. The state and the government were involved in thisrehabilitation.

RM: Oh, I see, when you hurt your knees.

EA: Yes. It was a good deal, too. I probably learned more working at Consolidated quicker than Iwould if I'd been in the air force at that time, because they didn't have any heavy bombers atall. They just had a few B-17s before the war.

RM: So the B-24 was made by Consolidated in San Diego, and was that the only place it wasmade?

EA: At that time, right. They made the PBYs - the flying boats - too, at that plant.

RM: So you really knew a lot about these B-24s?

EA: Yes, you worked on everything on them. You helped with different sections when theframes came. When the fuselage came in, you knew how to line that all up, put the wings on,put the bullet-proof fuel tanks in, guns, engines . . . you had to do the whole thing.

RM: And then when they test flew them you were in there to kind of troubleshoot it?

EA: Not on the LB-30. It was about the last 6 months when they were in the later, newermodels, and they were taking them out for about 3 or 4 days. They had to have extra help then.

RM: But they were B-24s?

EA: Yes.RM: So it was B-24s all the way for you down there? You acquired a lot of really good skillsworking there, didn't you?

EA: Well that's it - you learned how to read precision instruments, how to take goodmeasurements . . they had to be exact because when you got through with something herecame the company inspector and he stamped the deal, and then came the governmentinspector who stamped over him. So you had your initials signed here.

RM: They knew who screwed up if it was . . .


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EA: [chuckles] Yes, you were done.

RM: When did you finally go into the army then?

EA: Well, by the time we got back to Fort Sill it was about in February of 1943.

RM: And what did you do in the army?

EA: Now this is a sad story. It's an army mixup. I figured with my aircraft training I'd go right inthe air corps. So what happened? I went to Salt Lake City to Camp Douglas and they had a tablelike this and everybody who was 6 feet tall and looked like he weighed 170 pounds was walkedup on that table. They had a doctor sitting there, and he looked at your feet and knees and thisand that, and he'd stamp this person suitable for MP duty. I wondered what the heck NP wasand some of the guys were all in a bunch. Finally we asked, "What's this MP business?"

"Well, you fellows are going to Washington, D.C. You're going to be select NPs for guardduty in Washington, D.C., for the war. You've all got to be 6 foot tall and weigh 170 pounds soyou can handle any kind of trouble, and you'll be highly trained."

Boy, Washington, D.C.! We didn't argue about going anywhere. So we took off and weheaded in the direction of Washington, D.C., all right. One evening we were in Kansas City,Missouri, and we got off the train there and got back on and pretty soon we went to bed. Thenext morning we woke up on a siding and looked out and we were in Lawton, Oklahoma. Andthere were all kinds of recruits there. Somebody hollered, "Hey, where do they train theseMPs?"

And there was a fellow there in an old cavalry outfit with the regular hat, puttees, andthe flared pants, swagger stick . . . a sergeant with about 9 stripes. He said, "All you Ws fall in onme. I'll show you where we train the MPs." So we got on the bus and went through the mainpart of the fort. Out on the edge in the distance we could see these big galvanized buildings. Aswe got closer, we could see they were full of baled hay. We went around them, and here wereabout 500 mules. He said, "All right boys. I want to introduce you to mule-pack artillery."

RM: No kidding. And what exactly did they do?

EA: You've probably seen these little howitzers that the marines have with a barrel about thislong - a little rubber-tired cannon.

BM: Yes.

EA: Well, the mule-pack artillery used the same thing, a 75mm pack howitzer, but they had ironwheels because rubber-tired wheels didn't mount on the pack saddles. It took 6 mules to packthe howitzer. Your cannoneers and gunners and that were high school graduates. The muleskinners were boys out of Alabama, Kentucky, and down in that country. And they knew miles.We had to work with them and all that, but those guys from the South were the best soldiers Iever saw. They were big guys, too.


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RM: So you went into the mule-pack artillery?

EA: Yes. They didn't even pay any attention to my aircraft experience.

RM: Is that right? So then you got training in that?

EA: Yes, we got training. The thing is, the regular infantry marches at about 3.2 to 3.5 miles anhour, so a mule pack has to go an average of 5 miles an hour. In a 30-mile march, you get todoing that as standard procedure.

RM: Is that right? You can't walk that fast, can you - 5 miles an hour?

EA: You bet. [chuckles] You learn to stretch out. The way it works, a mule skinner has the reinsor the strap for the mule and he never looks back. If he looks back the mule stops.

RM: The mule knows that he looks back?

EA: Yes.

RM: No kidding.

EA: The mule skinner is walking too. You walk right at the mule's flank and you can either useyour thumb or have a little piece of wood with a dull point on it and if the mule starts slowingup you gig him a little bit.

RM: And what's the mule skinner carrying?

EA: He's just carrying the reins. The mule sets his gait; he'll walk 5 miles an hour. As a matter of fact, he'll walk:more than that because you stopped every hour for a little bit to rest the mule.

RM: And what's the mule's load?

EA: The gun is broke down into 6 pieces - the barrel and the wheels and the trailing pieces andall of that. And these mules got trained so well that when you loaded them they'd be in a circle,with the gun in the middle. It took 6 of them to haul just the howitzer. Then you had many of them hauling ammunition and food, supplies and all that other good stuff.

RM: And there was one skinner for each mule?

EA: Right.

RM: And then a guy by his flank?


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EA: Yes. There were 5 men generally on the howitzer, so they had plenty of the guys for flankguys.

RM: And you walked at a 5-mile-an-hour pace?

EA: Yes. On 30-mile marches they wanted us to go 5 miles an hour. RM: Boy, you had to be ingood condition, didn't you?

EA: That's it. Talking about condition, when we were through with the last 30-mile march wewent on, the sergeant kind of told us, "Now, sometime through the night, you guys are going tohave visitors." You see, they trained rangers there at Fort Sill, too. One of their deals was theambush. When the pack howitzer guys were all trained and they were trained, they had toambush them or raid them.

So we figured what was up; we'd heard about these things. It was pretty rough. If youwere in your pup tents they did a lot of damage -they'd knock them down and then tumble youaround. So we had our guys stationed way out. They got off their trucks 4 or 5 miles away, butwe had guys away down the only road coming in there, so we ambushed them. And there werewhistles a-blowing and everything. Some guys got hurt Pretty badly.

RM: What did you do when you finished your training?

EA: They took us to a mess hall and they said, "They need you guys in the Pacific right now.You'll get your battle gear tonight; you'll be on Your way the next day." And everybody wasgetting 7 days at home, you know, after they finished their training. Some headed for California,then Pittsburgh, then Camp Stoneman. Then we got on a liberty ship, the John Lykes, which hadbeen at Dutch Harbor and had been kind of bombed it had a list. Our convoy was one 4-stackdestroyer and this liberty ship. It took us 30 days to get to New Caledonia. And it was spooky.We had to refuel the destroyer from the liberty ship and everybody was on deck with their lifebelts, with no ships in sight or anything. We were sitting ducks because we just weren't moving.

RM: For a Japanese sub?

EA: Right. But we made it. So then we went to the Solomons. Well, the mules were there aheadof us.

RM: The same mules?

EA: Oh no. Different ones. But there was no dry food for them. They were trying to eat on that jungle foliage and they got diarrhea. So they decided, "Well, they ain't no good here," so theyshipped them back. Then they went somewhere and got some rope about like that and theybraided sticks of them. They said, "Well, you guys are going to have to pull them around to . . ."(where you've got to go).

RM: Good lord.


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EA: Well, those iron wheels they use . . . this was funny. Here we were along a trail pulling thedamn howitzer and here came the marines with their jeeps and all, pulling their howitzers withrubber tires. They eyeballed that a little bit and the army decided we were more worthless thanthe mules.

So they shipped us back to New Caledonia for reassignment. And you had to go over totarget practice every day. Well, most of the mule skinners - those old Kentucky, Tennessee,Alabama fellows - got pretty near perfect scores the first day they shot. So the next morningthey were on their way to New Britain or New Georgia or something.

RM: The Southerners?

EA: Yes. They got pretty near all them the first whack. That might have been another deal, too -they needed infantry guys and they looked in their records and saw that they were all expert[sharpshooters].

I was doing something else and I didn't get to shoot till about the third day and I had itfigured out very well, then. I knew damn well I was waiting for something to happen besidesgoing to the infantry from the pack artillery. So I kind of shot the corners off my target. Thesecond lieutenant said, "You know, the position you're in and the way you're holding that rifleand everything, I can't understand why you can't hit in the bull's-eye or something." But I knewmy time was coming.

An air force major showed up looking for anybody who had any aircraft experience. Iwent and talked to him and he said, "Jesus Christ, where in the hell you been?" The next day Iwas on a boat going to the Fiji Islands. But I didn't get into a bomber outfit till I got into a fighter[squadron] [where they flew] P-39s. They were a different type of engine and everything.

RM: Was that the Aira Cobra?

EA: Yes.

RM: They trained them in Tonopah for that.

EA: Right. This squadron - the 68th Fighter Squadron - was one of the first squadrons in thePacific. As a matter of fact, when Yamamoto was shot down, one of their pilots shot him downout of Guadalcanal, up by Bougainville.

RM: Was he the admiral of the Japanese fleet?

EA: Yes. But this was later on. When they shot him down they were flying P-38s.

RM: So you stayed with the P-39s then till . . .

EA: Until we went to Bougainville, then we traded them in for P-38s.


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RM: That was the old double . .

EA: . . . twin boom . . .

RM: Was that a good plane?

EA: It was a deadly plane if they could get up high. Boy, they came down like a hawk, and the 5guns on them . . . anything that got in front of them and they got a whack at, they just blew allto pieces.

RM: Is that right? But they had to come down on something?

EA: Yes. They couldn't maneuver tight enough in the lower altitudes. The Japs didn't want to getinto that high altitude, either. They wanted to do most of their maneuvering at about 20,000feet because they had heavier air and everything right about there. They took quite awhile tomake the P-38s. The Japs would turn on the inside of them . . .

RM: Did you stay there till the war was over?

EA: Yes.

RM: And then they shipped you back.

EA: Yes, we left from Leyte . . . we were down at Palawan when the war ended.

RM: Where was Palawan?

EA: That was a prison island where they had the big Philippine prison.


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CHAPTER TWO

RM: How long did you spend in the South Pacific?

EA: Thirty months.

RM: Did you like the area - aside from the war, I mean?

EA: No, we . . . boy oh boy. We went from New Caledonia to the Solomons, then to New Giinea,then back up to the Philippines.

RM: You were all over, weren't you?

EA: Yes, we went everywhere. We were what they called a task force squadron. We were in the13th Air Force, which hardly anybody ever heard of, the 347th group - we had 3 squadrons inthat. As soon as the Seabees or the army engineers had a runway laid, we were there. We werethere before anything was set up or anything.

RM: Is that right? Did they fly you in?

EA: They'd fly you in or you'd come in with a fast boat.

RM: And your job was to keep those planes running?

EA: Keep them going, patching holes in the .

RM: Was it tough to get parts and materials and everything?

EA: In the beginning of the war it was really tough. The original guys were in the battle of Guadalcanal full bore. They went in by submarines with no parts, no nothing. They were prettywell bombed and shelled and . . . that was a real tough one.

RM: But you didn't have that much trouble with parts?

EA: Well, we had our trouble. The main thing was getting planes, a lot of times. It was right at

the time the battle was going on in Europe, and they didn't want too damn many planes in the[Pacific] - especially bombers and such.

RM: Then you came back to the states after the war?

EA: Yes.

RM: When did you get back?


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EA: In December of '45.

RM: And what was the name of the outfit that you were in over there, again?

EA: The 68th Fighter Squadron of the 347th group of the 13th Air Force. We had one of the topaces in our squadron - Lieutenant Colonel Robert B. Westbrook. They made one mistake. They'dbeen down to Singapore or somewhere and coming back they saw these Jap fishing boats.There were 4 planes, and they went down to strafe them. They said one guy stood up with arifle and must have got him right through the head or something. RM: So you lost the ace.

EA: Yes. We had lots of aces but he was the top. He had 20-some planes.

RM: Wow. When you came back were you expecting a career in the aircraft industry?

EA: Well, I had a military leave of absence from Consolidated, so I went back down there to takea look, and they were on strike and San Diego had got too big to suit me. So I decided to cameback to Nevada and go into the mining business.

RM: Is that right? So in '51 you found yourself in Gabbs?

EA: Yes.

RM: And you say you started off living up at Sierra Magnesite's housing. How long did you livethere?

Tina Alworth: Six months.

RM: But you were working for Basic?

EA: Right.

RM: Could you describe what your job was with Basic?

EA: For a little short while they needed an oiler - that's someone w1 lubricates all themachinery. I figured, "FOr the winter that's fine." I worked as an oiler for about 2 months and

I'd stand around and watch the guys and tell them, "Well, you do it . . . " this way or that way,you know. So they said, "Well, you sure ain't an oiler." [chuckles]Then I went into the diesel shop for a while. I was on the diesel engines and the

transmissions and all that. Then they eliminated the contractor working in the briquette plantover something. They took everybody out of the diesel shop and put them into plantmaintenance and I worked there for about 6 months. I was supposed to go back in the dieselshop but they said, "No, we need you in plant maintenance."


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RM: What kind of equipment were you working on in the diesel shop?

EA: It was Caterpillars, Euclid trucks, 2 sizes of shovels and that type of thing.

RM: So you were just working on anything that needed fixing?

EA: Right. You can read an instruction book and it's all right there.

RM: The trucks were a lot smaller than they are now, weren't they?

Eh: Yes, at that time the Euclids hauled about 13 yards and that was considered immense.Everybody thought they were a big truck. (They had 8 or 9 of them.) Quite awhile after I left theshop they came on with the 35-yard trucks.

RM: And they were just humongous, weren't they?

EA: Yes, and now they're small. [chuckles]

RM: Were they pretty reliable?

EA They were pretty reliable except the brakes. For a flat quarry area it'd be fine, but whenyou're caning down the 9-, 10- or better-percent grade, they had to have hydrotarders onthem.

RM: What are they?

EA: That's a water wheel they put on the drive line.

RM: It pumps it up?

EA: Yes, they pump it and it makes this pressure and the pressure would act as a brake. Itpumped to beat heck, but they had valves to shut the water off. The brakes were way toonarrow for the type of grades they have here.

RM: So you were constantly replacing brakes?

EA: Well, constantly replacing hydrotarders. [chuckles] They didn't trust their brakes at all. Theyused water with a soluble oil in them, but they cavitated awfully fast.

RM: What does "cavitated" mean?

EA: Well, the water just wore the veins out on those big impellers. Then they tried electricbrakes. They took the place of the hydrotarder on the drive line, but it was like a big generator.And they were generating this power and that energy was dissipated as heat.


25/68

RM: Oh. The drive shaft was turning a generator, in effect, and then that was acting as a brakeon it?

EA: Yes.

RM: I'll be darned. So you worked on the 13-yard Eucs?

EA: Right.

RM: You weren't there when they had the 35s?

EA: No.

RM: Did they have any other kinds of trucks?

EA: Oh, they had flatbed trucks - small dump trucks around the mill -generally Fords andChevrolets and like that. And an old Mac or two at that time.

RM: And that kind of shovels did they have?

EA: TI shovels were all by Bucyrus-Erie. First they had the 37-Bs, then they went to 54-Bs.

RM: How big a bucket did they have?

EA: The 54-B had a 4-1/2-yard bucket and the Bucyrus-Erie's 37-B was a 2-1/2 yard bucket. Butnow they've got the big hydraulic loading deals RM: Was there any other kind of equipmentthat you worked on at that time?

EA: Well, motor patrols, the old-fashioned ones.

RM: How many yards a day were they moving up there?

EA: Never less than 10,000 tons a day.

RM: They were moving that much?

EA: Actually-more than that - that was ore. Sometimes they'd bring down that much ore.Probably when they started it wasn't that much. I'm thinking about the later days. They just hadone rotary kiln going at that time.

RM: How did they break the ore?


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EA: It's an open-pit mine and there were big benches. They drilled them with wagon drills andthey loaded them, at that time, with dynamite.

RM: How big were the holes?

EA: About 3 inches.

RM: How deep were they?

EA: Oh, not over about 20 feet. They had to be real careful on the ore grade. Every hole had tobe sampled and the samples kept. It was a big job in the lab keeping track of it. Then they'dmake a pattern deal all colored up and blast it. And they'd try to blast it so it just lifted -the orebowed up and down, then they'd flag where the ore was because it all looked the same.

RM: What exactly is a wagon drill?

EA: The old wagon drills had a mast, then a piece of . . you've seen pavement breakers - jackhammers?

RM: Yes.

EA: Well, this is a 'movable deal. The chain deal would run up and down this mast and it had airmotors on there; they put pressure on it to . . .

RM: So it was a hammer; it hammered it down.

EA: Yes, an air hammer.

RM: Just like a jackleg or something.

EA: Right. They did away with them a long time ago and they went to air tracks. Now they'vegot deals that look like Caterpillars, the big, big, air tracks, I call them.

RM: Yes, up at Round Mountain they put down an 8-inch hole. They put down a 40-foot hole in10 minutes if the ground's not too hard.

EA: [chuckles] Yes.

RM: But they were blasting with dynamite at that time?

EA: Yes. That was all ammonia nitrate back then - special boosters.

RM: Did they have a large number of shovels?


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EA: No, the most shovels they ever had were the 2, 54-Bs and a 37-B and they had a P & H 4-1/2yard but it wasn't a success. They had a 44-B Bucyrus-Erie and it didn't work out.

RM: How much ore were they moving a day when you were at this phase?

EA: When I first started they were doing a lot of stripping. They had to be moving a lot becausethey averaged over the years 1-1/2 million, 2 million tons a year.

RM: Is that right?

EA: Yes. Not ore, that's rock. The stripping ratio's probably 3 to 1 or 4 to 1 there. If they brought4800 tons to the mill, then there were 17,200 tons moved that day.

RM: So then it wasn't too long until they transferred you over to the plant. Could you talk alittle bit about the process the ore went through in the job?

EA: Originally they just had the one rotary kiln.

RM: Now, what is a rotary kiln?

EA: You've seen a cement plant?

RM: Yes.

EA: Well, that long tube is a rotary kiln - it's a long tube that turns, and they heat it in there. Butthey have to heat the magnesite several hundred degrees hotter than they do cement. It's adead burn.

RM: What does that mean - "dead burn"?

EA: When the ore comes in, the specific gravity is around 3, I think. Two hundred tons of itwould go into the rotary kiln in raw feed. When it comes out the 200 tons of raw feed nowweights 80 tons of finished clinker. In a dead burn they run all the gases out of it and all themoisture out of the rock and they make a dense clinker out of it.

RM: So a ton of ore would yield how much dead burn?

EA: Less than 50 percent.

RM: No kidding - that little? And it's all in the moisture and thegases?EA: Most of it's the gas. The gas is a C02. Tons and tons of that go up the stack.

RM: Is that right?


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EA: You see, the [formation of] brucite [involves] crystallization of H20, which comes out aswater, but in the magnesite it's partly CO2.

RM: There are 2 ores - brucite and magnesite - aren't there?

EA: Right.

RM: What is the difference?

EA: It's just in the chemical formulation.

RM: Do they look different?

EA: Oh yes. The brucite is a light-colored rock.

RM: What color is it?

EA: It's kind of an off-white, most of it, and it's kind of pearly. It can look just like the magnesite,too, but generally the high-grade is lighter colored.

RM: What do they use the brucite for now?

EA: Brucite is used in ceramics and it can be used for metal too, but now...only certaincustomers buy it. They make a material out of it that just won't wear out.

RM: It's like a ceramic?

EA: Yes. They take the brucite and get it molten in big induction furnaces. In they pour it inthese forms and they have steel clips in there so they can weld it to chutes and things. It's anexpensive material - Cohart's the name of it. It just refuses to wear out. It just gets slick and . . .

RM: So they use it in chutes and . .

EA: Yes, and a lot of it goes into ceramics.

RM: But originally they were using the brucite in firebrick, weren't they?

EA: Yes. I have an idea it had to be your real high-grade, because this is the only place in theworld, I think, where you can get brucite now. And they don't sell it to everybody. They've gottheir old customers . . . somebody down in Texas has been taking truckloads down there. Theytake it uncrushed or anything - boulders and all. I don't know what they're using it for. I asked atruck driver, "What are they using it for?"


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He said, "I take it down there and I dump it and they get me off the property." So I don'tknow what they do with it.

RM: And what does the magnesite look like?

EA: It looked just like plain gray limestone. That's the problem, you can't tell it [from limestone].

RM: What is the country rock up there?

EA: Most of its dolomite.

RM: What is the magnesite used for?

EA: The big thing when I started was in refractories for the steel industry.

RM: And what does that mean?

EA: That's the lining for the open-hearth steel furnaces. They made brick out of some of it. Thenafter the bricks they built all the open-hearth furnaces. Then they went in with the clinker andthey put a layer of that in there a foot deep all over to protect the brick. If a hole would startgoing into where the brick was, they had special guns that blew this stuff in - what they call aspecial refractories product They make that up here, too. It's got a little silica and other stuff init so that when it goes in there it fluxes.

RM And they still do that?

EA: Yes.

RM: What was it they were taking to Henderson - brucite or magnesite? EA: Magnesite.

RM: And they both contain high levels of magnesium, right?

EA: Right.

[Tape is turned off for a while.]

RM: Ed has shown me a little cylindrically shaped thing. It's about 8 inches long and about 1-1/2inches in diameter; it's magnesium that was made at Henderson. And it is really interesting tohold because it's so light. It's shockingly light, really.

EA: It used to be about that long. I've cut samples off for people. Anyhow, the history on thisoperation [started when] Howard Eells, Jr., [the president of Basic Refractories], heard aboutthe brucite in the Gabbs area.


30/68

RM: Who originally discovered it?

EA: Harry Springer and a couple of other old-timers. There was also a tungsten mine operatingup there, but I don't know who operated it. That's why they call that one gulch going upTungsten Gulch. But this Howard Eells flew in from Reno to that flat down by Luning in 1935.

There was nothing but a dirt trail coming in here at this time. These old prospectors were livingin the brucite camp and there was a spring up there. Same of the old cabins those old fellowslived in are still up there.

RM: And that's up in the mine workings area? Does that mountain have a name?

EA: No. It's in the Paradise Range. Anyhow, he made a deal with them to sell and lease some of the claims They started mining the brucite and they hand sorted it. They'd just mine it - theyhad a 10-B Bucyrus-Erie, about a 3/8 bucket and some small dump trucks, and they justdumped it out on the flat. They had some old dumpster buckets and they dumped these bucketloads of rock around and they had people hand sorting it.

Some way or another before the war Eells researched magnesium metal, I guess, and hekind of tied up an English patent on making magnesium out of magnesite. The governmentneeded magnesium, so they got together with Basic and Eells and they developed this idea.

He was telling us one time about it - they knew that there'd be a big land grab in LasVegas if they told them where they were going to put this tremendous plant. So he said theywent across the valley, little knowing that they weren't too far from where the Strip was, andmade like they were e surveying out a complex for a big plant, and all these promotors wentdown there and grabbed all the land they could around it. In the meantime, they secretlydeveloped the location where Henderson is now because it's closer to the power.

RM: That's fascinating. Whereabouts were they laying out the . . . ?

EA: It was somewhere to the west of the Strip. He said they had a big surveying crew out theremaking a big show. That's why the school and a lot of things down in Henderson were calledBasic - after Basic Refractories.

So anyhow, they built it. To begin with they were going to ship the concentrates fromhere by train down there. But it was a hell of a roundabout way from . . .

RM: Oh yes. They'd have to go what, to Luning and then up to . .

EA: Yes, then way down to catch the . . .

RM: And then come down the Union Pacific from Salt Lake.

EA: Yes. So that wasn't working out on account of all the other military traffic. They went thatway for a while, then Howard Wells, the Wells Cargo Trucking outfit, who was a good friend of Mr. Eells, I guess promoted that they get a fleet of trucks. Well, they got them. I've seenpictures of that string of trucks lined up. Boy, it was like a freight train. So they started hauling


31/68

the concentrates down to Henderson. And they had a tremendous float plant set up hereupgrading the ore, and roasters and vacuum pumps and so on. Most of that was gone when Icame.

RM: They weren't processing the ore in the same way when you got here?

EA: No.

RM: What were they doing with the ore when you got here?

EA: They were just making a dead burn clinker. They had one rotary kiln and they were using awet process. They could only make maybe 70 tons a day of product and it was a money-losingproposition. It had clinkered up in the kilns so badly that they had to shoot, sometimes, 24hours a day with kiln guns to knock the rings out of the kiln

RM: Is that right? What does a kiln gun look like?

EA: Oh, the ones they used (Winchester and Remington both make them) are a real heavy dutyshotgun. They've got a heavy duty breach; they load them by hand. The shell looks like ashotgun shell. The use an 8-gauge lead slug.

RM: And that's to break the clinkers out of there?

EA: Yes. They'd knock the big chunks and balls that got rolling around in there. And then onetime Basic built a 4-gauge gun. A Max Mueller from Switzerland worked for Basic in the earlydays when he was going to college. Well, he went to Switzerland and got an idea off the Lugersand he had one built that had the Luger action and fired 4-gauge.

RM: Now 4-gauge is bigger, isn't it?

EA: Right. And that was air operated.

RM: But it didn't damage the kiln?

EA: Well, it shot the end out of the dust chamber if you didn't [chuckles] hit the boulder.

RM: Did the shot ricochet in there?

EA: It bounced around.

RM: How big was the kiln?

EA: This one was 390 feet long and 9-1/2 feet in diameter.


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RM: What did they use to heat it with?

EA: To begin with they heated with coal, then they went to bunker oil, then they went tonatural gas, then back to bunker oil and back to coal. They'd go any 3 of those ways.

RM: Is the fire under it?

EA: No. For instance, when they're burning coal they have a coal mill there, which pulverized itso it's just like flour. A big fan blows a blast of air and pulverized coal and it burns just like . . .

RM: Oh, it blows it inside the kiln.

EA: Yes. And they fire it up by just holding a mass of rags soaked in diesel oil and that pulverizedcoal burns just like oil or gas.

RM: I see. And how long were they charged?

EA: It's a continuous feed.

RM: How do you make sure that what you've got coming out is finished?

EA: It's a matter of porosity.

RM: Which means . . . ?

EA: It's the density of the material. They have scales and I never did quite . . . they dip it in waxfor some reason and that's the test.

RM: Does the ore go in one end and came out the other as clinkers?

EA: Yes.

RM: How long did it take it to go through?

EA: It takes a couple of hours - that thing only turns real slowly. That's basically what theprocessing plant was, just the big kiln and . . .

RM: Did it operate 24 hours a day?

EA: Any of these things - the Herreshoff furnaces and the kilns with the high heat - once theyfire them up, until they break down, run 24 hours a day.

RM: Holidays and everything?


33/68

EA: Right. You rover shut down unless it breaks down.


34/68

CHAPTER THREE

RM: What is a Herreshoff furnace?

EA: A Herreshoff furnace is a vertical furnace with 14 hearths in it. It has a central shaft witharms on it with rabble teeth on it - they call them rabble arms - and the ore comes in the top.One set of arms moves it to the outside of the hearth and it drops down to the next hearth,then that set of arms moves it to the center of the shaft and it drops down to another hearthand back and forth.

RM: Oh. It works its way down?

EA: Right. And you have either bunker oil heat or natural gas up on each hearth.

RM: So basically it's a vertical kiln, in effect?

EA: Yes.

RM: Does it also turn the ore into clinkers?

EA: No. It's turned into a "light burn." This is what they call a magox product up on the hill. It's ahigh-grade . . . as a matter of fact, it's used in many, many, many things: the chemical industry,the animal food industry, Epson salts, soil stabilization, sugar refineries, rubber . . . there's a listof things a mile long that it's used in. The big thing is the feed grade. Back east where theglaciers were there's a very great deficiency of magnesium in all the grains and the water, Iguess, and everything. And the cattle and chickens and all that have got to have it.

RM: I see. So their bodies can absorb magnesium in this form. What is it - magnesium oxide?

EA: Yes.

RM: So they turn out magnesium oxide.

EA: Yes, in the Herreshoffs. That's the main product right now. And these trucks come fromGeorgia and all over. They drive straight up here.

RM: And a lot of it goes into animal feed?

EA: Yes. And then soil stabilization is the same thing. They're trying to upgrade their soil byputting it on. (That's the low-grade stuff.) The freight on it is the thing that kills people. Now,they're shipping magox from China and selling it for $35 a ton and you can't get it shipped fromhere back east for that. But the Chinese product is not as high-grade as the magox they makehere. But it's the old story - you get in a little argument with these countries and they shut you


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off. This is what happened here just a couple of months ago. All of a sudden they've got truckscaning in here ordering thousands of tons, and they had to fire up another furnace.

RM: Because China shut them down?

EA: Well, they just didn't let them load some ships. And that's the way they do it - no shipsloaded, no product. I've been doing a little research, studying up on this heavy media deal. I'veinherited the library of an old, old-time mining engineer through certain relatives.

RM: Is that right? Engineering books or magazines?

EA: It's his books and his work collections and this and that and it's very, very interesting.

RM: Is there quite a bit about magnesium?

EA: Yes. One I've been studying makes reference to what happened when World War II gotstarted and before - what [this country] was going to have to do, because they had nomagnesite here. They were getting it from Austria. Austria was a big exporter - the firstexporter to the refractories. They got shut off and boy, the panic. They've forgotten about thatnow, you see. For instance, there might be one refractory outfit still running in the UnitedStates, but I doubt it.

RM: This is the only one?

EA: On brucite. We're making no refractories hardly at all now. It's just special refractoriesproducts - SRP, as we call them - in addition to the magox.

RM: Are the SRPs made out of the brucite?

EA: No, this is out of the clinic red - the dead-burn. But that has other ingredients in it, so it'san import here. But the clinker shipments from here used to amount to thousands of tons. Weused to ship, like 10,000 tons to Japan or 2000 tons to Mexico and this and that.

RM: Was that in the '50s or the '60s or . . . ?

EA: Fifties and '60s - '60s especially. Then the United States provided the money for modern

refractory plants over there - seawater plants and that.

RM: And that hurt you?

EA: Oh yes.

RM: Who are the other big exporters now, in addition to China?


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EA: Well, Austria, Greece . . . Greece is also a very big exporter.

RM: Do they have a lot of brucite?

EA: No. The thing in Greece . . . as a matter of fact, some people from the Greek company were

here. We had one of the top magnesite experts in the world as a metallurgist here - a man fromDenmark. He'd been all over the world and he knew of every type of magnesite there was andwhere it was. They would send people here to learn from him how to upgrade it. He wasshowing me a picture of this outfit in Greece. They cut wood for some of the places to makework, to keep everybody happy. They do things by hand that they could do by trucks and Cats.And they use vertical shaft kilns there instead of rotary kilns. They would go into mountainsideswhere there'd be a cliff-like deal of solid rock. They would mine that out, and they didn't haveto use steels for anything. Then they'd fill that up, with rock and charcoal. They cut big charcoalovens like they did years ago making charcoal, and they'd put this in there and make theirclinker that way.

RM: Wow.

EA: It was a big, big, big setup. The Greek government runs the corporation.

RM: I'll be darned. Is this the only place in the country that produces magnesium oxide now?

EA: I don't know about Moss Landing in California.

RM: They had another deposit there?

EA: No, they get it from seawater. Basic has a seawater plant in Port St. Joe, Florida, andsomething down at Brownsville, Texas. (They got that company after I left.)

RM: Does Basic own Mom Landing?

EA: No, that's Kaiser.

RM: Where is Moss Landing?

EA: It's down in the artichoke country. It's down by San Francisco - go through San Jose and it's

right on the ocean.

RM: So when you came here in '51 there was just a kiln?

EA: Right, and the heavy media plant that they'd just finished building.

RM: And what exactly is a heavy media plant?


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EA: Well, that plant is set up and they make a solution. They've got a big tank, kind of a coneshape . . . at that time they were using ground-up iron as the media to raise the density of thesolution, and they would float the waste off. They set the solution right close to the product. If the product was 2.95 density, then they would bring it right close where anything lighter thanthat would float, and they would float it off. It was designed for 50 tons and they had a heck of

a time getting 50 tons to go through it.

RM: That was 50 tons an hour?

EA: Yes.

RM: What was the product they got out of that process?

EA: It was high-grade raw ore. This was a process for upgrading the raw ore.

RM: Then they would run that through the Herreshoff furnace?

EA: Or the kiln At that time it would have been through the kiln.

RM: Is there any difference in the product you get out of the Herreshoff versus the kiln?

EA: Oh, there's a lot of difference. The kilns produce what they call dead-burn - everything'sburned out of it. It's radish - looks just like red lava rock except that it's so damn dense andheavy. But the magox retains its original weight, pretty much They drive off the gases but theydon't clinker it.

RM: OK. So the clinkers go into products like liners and that kind of thing, right?

EA: Yes, brick, firebricks and . .

RM: And the magox - magnesium oxide - goes to chemical and agriculture uses?

EA: Yes. For a while they were using it in these tectum blocks for wood. They shredded thewood - it looked like shredded wheat - and made building material for ceilings and they sprayedthis solution of magnesium oxide onto the wood and it fireproofed it - it wouldn't burn. RM: Oh.It's almost a substitute for asbestos, then. Are they still doing that?

EA: Yes. Same company in Canada has got the patent on it. Canada produces a lot of magnesite,too.

RM: When you transferred from working on the diesels into the plant, what kind of things wereyou working on in the plant?

EA: Well, it was pumps, screw conveyors, crushers, ball mills, elevators - everything they had.


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RM: Did they crush the ore down when they put it in the kiln?

EA: Well, at that time it was in a water solution. They pulverized it in wet ball mills, ground it inwater and then they went into holding tanks.

RM: I see. So it went into the kiln wet.

EA Yes.

RM: Where did they get their water? Did they pump it in of the valley? EA: Yes, there are 7 hotwater wells out here on the flat. All the water in this area, at that time, was about 150 degrees.That's why, they had cooling towers. And it was very bad water, too - around 10 parts permillion fluorides and dissolved . . . it's a thermal water. Very, very poor water.

RM: How long did you work in the plant?

EA: I worked in the plant till I retired, but I worked as a mechanic till about '61 or '62 when I wasmade a supervisor.

RM: What kind of a supervisor were you then?

EA: Over the plant maintenance. Later on I become the master mechanic or maintenancesuperintendent, so then I had everything.

RM: Trucks and shovels and everything?

EA: Yes. Electricians, sewer water, everything.

RM: How had things changed by 1960 or so?

EA: It was changing [a lot] in '60. They got into floatation and they put in another rotary kilnAnd in the '60s they bought out Standard Slag, got another rotary kiln and then the HMS plantwas running every summer when it wasn't freezing.

RM: And What did that do?

EA: It was upgrading the ore.

RM: Oh, I see. That was that floatation thing.

EA: Yes. The float plant was a 1000-ton-a-day floatation plant.

RM: Had they expanded it?


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EA: No, this was a new plant. It was built to take the rock and float out the impurities and thenthat was blended in . . . they went from feeding the kilns a dry product to a briquette. You haveseen charcoal briquettes? Well, the big briquette presses have faces on them and they made abriquette the same size out of the magnesite ore.

RM: You're showing me 3 feet there. And they had briquettes of magnesite?

EA: And they'd dry that - the concentrate from the floatation plant went in the bins, and thenthey mixed it with the raw ore in blending tanks. Then that was lifted by elevators into a pugmill and they added water and acid to the right amount of moisture and then it went throughbriquette presses and drying ovens and made a hard briquette. Then that's what they fed intothe kiln

RM: Why did they go to all that trouble, whereas before they'd just been putting it in wet?

EA: With real high-grade ore you could pit it in raw. But when they had to use floatation toupgrade the ore they had to find a product - they had to get bound up some way. And it waseasier in these blending tanks to upgrade it - take the lime out. They had different stockpiles. If they needed a little more to bring it up to a [grade they would] grind an A rock or a B rock.That's where they made their name - they had a product that was A-1 all the time. As a matterof fact, when Combustion Engineering bought out Basic they did away with a picture of a guyshoveling clinker and the guys in the steel mills wouldn't use the stuff. They had to put the guyshoveling clinker back on the bag.

RM: Is that right? When did Combustion Engineering buy the plant? EA: I think it was aroundabout '78.

RM: Why did Basic sell it?

EA: Well, it was one of these things. They just raised the price so high that they'd have beenfoolish not to take it. And Mr. Eells was getting old - it was a family-held deal - and he wasgetting way up there in age.

RM: I see. So they just sold it? And now Basic is not owned by that family anymore?

EA: No, but the name is back to Basic Refractories now.

RM: Did the Eells family buy it back?

EA: No, they're just using the name. Premier Refractories is involved and CE (CombustionEngineering) is still involved. But Combustion Engineering was bought out by a Swissconglomerate.


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RM: Which was named . . . ?

EA: ABB or something. And they're a great big organization. It had to be big - CombustionEngineering had about 40-some thousand employees alone.

RM: Is that right?

EA: It was a big engineering fine. They were big on nuclear power plants, all kinds of nuclearoperations.

RM: When you came here in '51 tow many employees were up there?

EA: Probably it was about 100; they had 30 on the labor crew alone at that time.

RM: What did the labor crew do?

EA: They were cleaning up a lot of stuff left from the war. They were pretty near all Mexicans.They lived in the brucite camp east of North Gabbs 1-1/2 miles, where they had a mess hall and.

RM: Oh, they were single men? All wetbacks.

RM: They were probably working cheap?

EA: No, they worked for full wages. And one Mexican was the chief. He collected their checksand it was the old standard ripoff. He knew what to do. They all had 14 kids, you know, and that- even guys 19 years old. Immigration finally cleaned that out.

RM: And what were they cleaning up?

EA: All the old buildings and things that were left from the government operation. They weredoing that kind of work for several years.

RM: When they got rid of them, did the work force drop?

EA: Quite a lot, because their labor crew after that was about 7 or 8people.

RM: How many people were working there by 1960?

EA: It was probably up to a couple hundred - the highest it was 315.

RM: And when was that?


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EA: That would have been about '78, '79. That's when everything was running - 3 rotary kilnsand 3 Herreshoff furnaces and the heavy media plant . . .

RM: And what do you think it is now up there?

EA: Less than 100.

RM: Why is it so law when there's all this demand?

EA: They can't net the freight out of here. They took the railroad out of Luning.

RM: Oh. And that really hurt the place?

EA: Well, it was hurt before they took the railroad out. The freight on it was just too high, and itand has been for quite a while.

RM: For 10 years or so?

EA: Yes. They can ship it in cheaper from overseas. For instance, the Greeks say, "Well, we canbring refractories from Greece and we take coal back. We've got to come get the coal anyhow,and it's just ballast." It only costs than $2 or $3 a ton, and it's practically the same thing with allthat stuff. Of course, I don't know what's going to happen if they cut down the coal fields backeast. That might change the picture too. RM: So basically there's a market, but the freight isreally hurting the plant now?

EA: Yes.

RM: So production is down?

EA: Oh yes. One of the rotary kilns hasn't run . . . well, as a matter of fact, the kiln they got fromStandard Slag is off of the tax roll. They've cut the power and water and everything to it. It'llnever fire up again. And the number one kiln - that's the big long one - I don't think willprobably fire up. They're supposed to fire up the newer one (it's still pretty old) in a couple of weeks. It's emergency start-up, too. Quite a lot of work's got to be done; they weren't figuringon this Chinese situation, you see.

RM: What about the Herreshoffs - how many of those are they working?

EA: They're working 2 of them now. We've got another - the newer one is on standby yet. Thewhole problem is with the grinding. They've got to air-separate this stuff after they grind it,because a lot of these products are 400 mesh. That's just like talcum powder, practically RM: Isthat the finished product?

EA: Yes, it's finished at that.


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RM How do they get their product out of there?

EA: Trucks.

RM: Do the trucks take it clear to the destination?

EA: Pretty near all of them. A lot them are these big feed companies -they have their owntrucks and they send them in. But most of them are gypos. They just call up a dispatcher andthey send them to go get a load here or there. They bring a load from back east and . .

RM: Does any of it go to a railhead at all?

EA: Yes, they've got a railhead up at Battle Mountain.

RM: Is that the nearest railhead now?

EA: No, the nearest one's in Fallon. They're trying to make a deal with Fallon to put in a railheaddeal there and that might go through. That's a lot closer. But the outfit hauling the ore to BattleMountain is doing it pretty near as cheaply as they hauled it from here to Luning.

RM: Is that right? How do they do that?

EA: Well, it was a Wells Cargo deal yet. They were real buddies with Eells.

RM: Oh, I see. So now this new guy is not charging as much?

EA: Right. But they're not getting the service though that they got out of Wells Cargo. They mixup the cars that go and all that.

RM: When you became superintendent of mechanics, what kind of trucks were you using?

EA: There were still a few of the smaller trucks, but then we got started replacing them with 35-tonners.

RM: Eucs?

EA: We had Euclids, Caterpillars and Haul-Paks and Darts.

RM: You didn't stick with one brand, did you?

EA: No. They went with whoever they could get the best deal from, which was a bad mistake.The Darts, for instance, didn't work out too well and some of the Haul-Paks didn't work.


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RM: Who makes Haul-Paks?

EA: That was the Haul-Pak Company.

RM: And then the Darts were made by . .

EA: . . . the Dart Company.

RM: Eucs are made by General Motors, aren't they?

EA: They are now. Euclid was a company of its own, too, at that time.

RM: What kind of shovels were they using then?

EA: They were still Bucyrus-Eries. They were using the shovel, and then they came in with the988 Cat front-end loaders. And then they came in with an 0-K German track layer - a big loaderwith about a 7-yard bucket on it.

RM: How many mechanics were working under you by the time you were superintendent?

EA: The highest crew I had altogether was about 110 or 112. That included mechanics,electricians, diesel mechanics . .

RM: And that was when they were working 350 people up there?

EA: Yes.

RM: So about a third of them were repair and mechanics?

EA: Yes, in 3 shifts.

RM: And you were in charge of all that?

EA: Yes, along with the water and sewer and everything.

RM: The water and sewer down in the town - the company owned that, didn't they?

EA: Yes. We had everything.

RM: Was it tough to manage the water and sewer?

EA: It was interesting - especially the old water lines. In the summertime what was bad was theredwood tanks leaking. You'd have to run around 2 or 3 times a night and switch water fromhere to there and this and that.


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RM: Where were the redwood tanks?

EA: They were right east of here up on the hillside.

RM: Were they pressure tanks?

EA: No, just steady-head tanks. 1 water would get so hot down here, even with the coolingtower, that you had to stand back to take a shower. A hundred fifteen degrees is kind of . . .

RM: Even with the cooling tower it was 115?

EA: Yes.

RM: So it wasn't until lately that people here really had cold water, was it?

EA: Just last summer.

RM: What was it like, living with that hot water all of the time?

EA: You had to be careful in the summertime, especially people with little kids And it made itbad trying to raise a garden or anything it would cook your grass.

RM: Did anybody ever think about using it to heat the homes here? EA: As a matter of fact, thestate did a whole study on it. It's all on record what to do . . . and I thought about it. I tried tobuy the lot down below me here. They drilled about 50 thermal test holes through the GabbsValley just down below town here and I'd help them out. If they'd break something I'd take it upthe hill and weld it up. I got to talking [with one man and I] said, "Boy, I'd like to have a thermalwell."

He said, "Well, let's go take a look at the back of your yard."We looked, and there was no way to get that drill rig in the back yard. My neighbor

owned the lot below me and I tried to buy it and, "No." He said, "I buy stuff, I never sell." Itmade me a little mad. Then he said, "What in the hell you want it for?"

I said, I've got a chance to get a free thermal well drilled."He said "Go ahead, let them drill it."Well, I wouldn't put it down unless it was on my property because I'd have to get

permits and all that. But the number 10 well here was the main well for this end of town andthey hit hot clay at 50 feet and the first hot water at 100 feet. So I figured I'd only have to go120 feet to have thermal water. I'm still thinking about it.

RM: Why couldn't you put it in your front yard?

EA: Well, Bunny Barredo and I had thought . .


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RM: Who?

EA: A fellow by the name of Barredo. Be was a mining engineer. He said, "Hell, we'll just getthem in here and we'll put it in my driveway or your driveway. I'll go in with you." But it's apretty big rig to [move], then by time you get a permit and everything . .

RM: Did you have to get a permit? Why couldn't you just say it's a water well? Well, you've gota lot don't you, so you don't have an acre?

EA: Yes. That's the thing - that acre. But I had a crusher here and I traded it off to a guy for ahydraulic special built drilling rig, so I've been thinking about . . . I've got to go look at it. I tradedit sight unseen but it was built for a good friend of mine; I knew the guy who built it. Be was amaster builder. It's all hydraulic. I figure I could sneak that in here and just . . .

RM: You could just take down your fence and put it right in the front yard and then you couldplant your grass and everything right over the pipes. How would the system work? The waterwould came out of the ground It and then what?

EA: Then this water's moving all the time a little bit. For just heating one house they said it'd beno problem putting it right back in the same hole.

RM: How do you get it back in the same hole?

EA: Just run another pipe down there. Circulate it through your house and put it right back in.

RM: Wow, what a way to heat your house!

EA: Yes. I've got to eyeball that a little more.

RM: That sounds interesting. It's a wonder they never went to it for the whole town.

EA: The book the state made is about an inch thick, and it's got everything in there - theinjection veils, putting the water back into the ground . . . but the thing is, most of the peoplewho care to Gabbs don't figure to be here very long. We could have had good water 15 yearsago when they put in a sewer plant in the other end of town. The mayor wanted to go right intothe water system and they threatened to tar and feather him. "By god, you stuck us for this

sewer up here, and you ain't going to stick us for water."


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CHAPTER FOUR

EA: You see, there was free water, free sewage - everything was free then - so they didn't wantto rock the boat. And the people up there, when they got their new sewer plant, had to pay

sewage fee.

RM: On the upper end?

EA: Yes. They had sewage running all over the ground and everything. It was terrible. Theground here won't handle leach lines. When they moved the doctor's clinic down here from upat the plant, we put in a real first class leach system and septic tank and everything. After about4 years that ground closed up - or whatever it was - and the water was coming up out of theground, so we had to tie it into the sewer system.

RM: What is it, a lot of clay?

EA: Some kind of clay or something. It looks like it's porous, but when water gets in it . . . it'sprobably bentonite, or something.

RM: Do you know anything about the geology of the magnesite and brucite deposits up here?

EA: Well, I've heard them talk a little bit about it. As a matter of fact, I went to a meeting herenot too long ago and these super government geologists figure that this deposit was developedat least 25 miles from where it's sitting now. It was moved in here by the plate movements andso on. They that because the base of where it comes from is not here.

RM: Where do they figure it is?

EA: Well, that's what they'd like to know; they figure it'd probably be one hell of anothermagnesite deposit.

RM Can they tell which direction it came from?

EA: It seems to be over to the southeast - they figure it came from over in there somewhere -because they found the same types of rock back in these hills on the other side to the south and

east. Some of the lime deposits here are 1000 feet thick and they know this whole countryreally moved around.

RM: How deep is the ore here? How deep does it go up on the hill?

EA: One pit - the best pit they had, which they've mined out - was a good 400 to 500 feet of orein that one mountain. And the one they're working on how will be more than that. It'll be over1000 feet of ore because it's way up on the mountain. They've got a sub pit off to one side that


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Standard Slag had and it's a couple hundred feet deep. The government drilled this, they reallydiamond drilled the whole area during the war, so they pretty well know where it's at.

RM: Is there a lot of ore left?

EA: Well, it has to be upgraded. This Aldabra claim they're working on has a pretty good chunkof that mountaintop. Then the more they come down, the better the ore will be. When I cameto work the personnel man said, "Well, we've got a life expectancy of 15 years." And they were just getting good then. From face to face the mine is a mile across.

RM: How big is it in the other direction?

EA: It's about a quarter of a mile. It's not all ore - there's low grade and high-grade mixed up.It's a son of a gun to mine.

RM: Because it's so spotty?

EA: Yes, it's spotty and then they've got intrusions, dikes, serpentines and that kind of stuff involved in it.

RM: And they figure the root of the thing is somewhere else?

EA: That's what these high-powered, real expert geologists say.

RM: That's really interesting. Of course there's probably something else over the root now, isn'tthere - maybe a big mountain range. EA: Yes. Well, it's a thermal type operation. The solutionsaltered all these rocks. [That's how you got] the magnesium.

RM: But the country rock is dolomite?

EA: Dolomite and granite.

RM: There's same granite up there?

EA: Oh, there are big granite intrusions there. Most of the intrusions are dykes and dolamites.The beds were laid in to where . . . they didn't get altered. Probably the limestone and so on

could have all been there before the granites even came up.

RM: And then these solutions came up and deposited and then the granite came in?

EA: Yes.

RM: Let's talk a little bit about some of the people who have run the mine and so on.


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EA: Pat Willard was one of the first works managers when I came to work; he was a veryknowledgeable mining engineer. Norman Hanson was works manager for a while.

RM: Is the works manager the superintendent?

EA: He's the head of everything. He's the top man. Norman Hanson had worked for Basic foryears. He was involved with the brucite operation before they ever got involved with themagnesite. You see, Basic bought and leased these magnesite claims from the government andsome people named Segerstom. They had a bunch of claims right in the middle too.

RM: Were these original claims that . . .

EA: Yes. The government accumulated all the claims they could.

RM: Was this during the war or afterwards?

EA: No, the government was getting rid of them after the war, but when they started to put theplant in here they tied up all the claims.

RM: Did they buy them from the original owners?

EA: They bought some from the original owners and they leased quite a few of them, too.

RM: I see. Were the terms of the leases good deals or did the government basically come in andtake them?

EA: I think they were pretty good deals. At least it was a pretty good deal for the people afterBasic took them.

RM: So the mine was not owned by Basic during the war?

EA: No, just the brucite. But they were leasing most of the brucite claims at that time, too. Theybought some of them but they were leasing some of them. Basic ran the brucite camp allthrough the war separate from the government. Actually, there was a brucite camp and therewas a townsite - what they called townsite - that the government built.

RM: That was this one here.

EA: Yes. Then there was what they called Smithville. That was where the Smith brothersdeveloped a business on 2 placer claims.

RM: Where was that?

EA: That's the other end of town.


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RM: Oh, that's the north end - North Gabbs?

EA: Yes. And then there was the Sierra Magnesite camp. So there were 4 different camps here.

RM: But the big operation was run by the government?

EA: Right. The government had big dormitories up there for men and women and a big masshall, big recreation center, plus the houses, plus the 4-plexes down here, big recreation areashere, gas stations, everything. The Smith brothers got in because they found out about this andwent and staked 2 placer claims.

RM: They had placer claims where the store and everything is now?

EA: Yes. They had a big gambling hall and store and . .

RM: Oh. And they built them on these placer claims?

EA: Yes. And they didn't get them patented until in the '50s.

RM: Is that right? There probably wasn't any ore on them, was there?

EA: Well . . . gravel. [chuckles] After they got them patented then they sold them. But they wentthrough a few works managers there. This Norm Hanson was an outstanding guy. He was thefellow who got Gabbs incorporated. The problem was, at that time Gabbs - or Basic - was thelargest taxpayer in the county. And we had no streets, the street lights were 100-watt lightbulbs, no telephones - we weren't getting anything back up here [for our tax money]. Nodeputy - one old guy was the deputy sheriff. So Norm Hanson went into the state assembly and[got Gabbs incorporated]. We didn't even know we were being incorporated till one day wefound out we were incorporated. (This was in 1954.)

RM: Is that right? He had put the bill through the assembly?

EA: Yes. So then we started getting money and got the streets oiled, street lights and someother things. I was one of the first councilmen on that . . .

RM: You were? Could you talk a little bit about being a councilman on a newly incorporatedtow

an interview with ed alworth

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